


Lie

by Amarxlen



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, Implied SoKai, Mentioned Maleficent, Redemption, falling to darkness, jealousy and other insecurities, mentioned Ansem SoD, when your best friends joke about leaving you behind
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-17
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-25 17:14:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30092427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amarxlen/pseuds/Amarxlen
Summary: Even the closest of friends sometimes lie to each other. Riku has always been a dreamer, but he's also been a liar, and lied to in turn.
Relationships: Kairi & Riku & Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	Lie

Riku remembers the first time Sora and Kairi ever lied to him. 

He’s all of six years old and life is perfect with his two best friends and dreams to travel to other worlds. The cave walls are scribbled with fairytales; skies they’ve never seen, ground they’ve never tread, but they believe in it, so it must be real. Like fairy dust and guiding stars, he knows his heart will take him there. 

It’s their secret, their place. A haven within a haven within a haven for just the three of them, away from prying eyes and knowing smiles. They listen to the wind whistle overhead, they tug at the door with no handle. In the end all they manage to do is leave more dreams on the stone and footprints in the sand. 

At first, it’s okay that the door doesn’t open. He’s six years old and there’s sword fights to have, trees to climb, and a whole ocean to play in. The days pass like this: play swords clash, children scream, and at night they lie in their beds to dream of doing it all again. 

Until one day he notices two cave drawings he recognizes by sight, but not by memory—two drawings that exclude him by merely existing. 

“Why did you guys draw each other in the Secret Place?” He tries not to show that the answer matters, that for some reason it hurts to see the two of them share something without him. With a hand on his hip and his head cocked, he waits for the answer. 

Sora sputters and turns red when he answers, “N-no reason!” It’s said so adamantly that Riku knows it’s not true. 

“Just for fun!” Kairi giggles unabashedly and grips the hem of her skirt, and this is how he knows they’re lying. Even if they don’t know it yet. 

He’s six years old, and he doesn’t understand it, but this is the beginning of the end. 

* * *

He’s twelve years old and hungry for more. Kairi and Sora only seem to care about other worlds as a fun story, but he knows better. Other worlds are out there, he just has to figure out how to find them. He can’t see them from the shoreline—only the way the sea stretches on to the end of his world, creating a thin but impenetrable barrier. 

Is it the edge of the world or does it go on forever? He knows what his school books say, but they never met the key wielding stranger who traded a promise for a promise. 

_ “And you will find me, friend—no ocean will contain you then.” _

He wonders if that key would have opened the door, and regrets not asking. It was magic; he was sure of it. Even if the stranger hadn’t told him, it was impossible not to feel the magic of the key, warm and alive in his tiny hand. It’s a feeling he won’t soon forget. 

_ “No more borders around, below, or above…” _

But when? It feels like it's been a lifetime since that day—with this secret that not even Sora knows. He can't bear another lifetime more.

The door stays shut, the stars stay in the sky, and the sun rises and sets, rises and sets; Riku wishes it would take him with it.

* * *

He’s fifteen years old and his friends look different. Sora's still baby faced, but Riku can see it starting to fade, especially when Sora looks at Kairi. When Riku and Sora spar, he can feel Sora's strength pushing back. Sometimes Riku plays dirty, because he doesn't want to consider losing. 

_ "I know it's out there somewhere—the strength that I need." _

Kairi’s hair is shorter than Riku’s now, but she wears it well. The way she laughs, unabashed and free, is still the same. But more and more lately Riku notices the glances she casts at him and Sora, and the way they're not the same anymore. 

_ “To protect the things that matter.” _

Riku looks different too, but not in a way either of them seem to notice. His eyes are never far from the shore, and it sometimes takes him a moment to respond to a conversation or question. Even still, he sees the way things are changing, even on an island that never changes. Sora looks at Kairi, and Kairi looks at Sora, and neither of them see Riku looking at them. 

They’re all getting older, but Riku isn’t getting any more patient. After years of wanting to escape, he finally has a plan. A raft isn’t the best idea, but it’s all he has with only a promise and no magic of his own. 

It’s a test of sorts, though he can’t say for who, when he tosses Sora a paopu at sunset. When he challenges Sora to a race and the prize is sharing a paopu with Kairi, he's not sure if it’s simply for the enjoyment of teasing Sora or something a little muddier. Part of him wants to win, and badly. He doesn’t try to understand why.

He doesn’t think Sora realizes it’s a lie when Sora says he doesn’t want to share a paopu with Kairi. For that matter, Riku doesn’t think Sora realizes  _ he’s _ lying when he says wanting to share the paopu with Kairi was a joke. Riku thought the raft would bring them all together again, but the paopu that’s appeared between Sora and Kairi’s cave drawings is tearing them apart.

* * *

He’s fifteen years old and knows better than to talk to strangers, but being the responsible one doesn’t always mean following the rules. 

It starts with a whisper;  _ Don't you want to know? Don't you want to see? Don't you  _ want _ —? _ And he does. He wants infinitely more than this island and the life he leads on it. 

The stranger knows everything, or so it would seem. Even things he shouldn't. The door, the longing, the lies. He tells Riku about the outside world, confirms the strength he wants is out there. Riku hears his own questions falling from this stranger's mouth. 

_ "This world is too small." _

Like mosquitoes in the humid night air, the words follow Riku, but unlike the insects they don’t give him relief during the day. If his world is small, his home and his classroom are miniscule. These days, even his skin feels too small.

He has the fleeting thought that he shouldn’t talk to strangers, regardless of the things they say. When he steps foot outside, the wind whisks the thought away as he rows from the main island to play. Sometimes he’s with Sora and Kairi, sometimes without, but he always, always finds himself back at the door, listening to more of the stranger’s whispers. Eventually, after what feels like another lifetime long secret, he tells Riku how to open the door. 

What else can he do but listen?

It’s exciting and new, and he’s so hungry for something  _ more _ that he never thinks—

Maybe he shouldn’t. 

Oh, maybe he shouldn’t.

It’s the biggest mistake of his life and now his home, family, friends—all of it is gone. Alone in a new world with only one person to turn to, he can’t help but contemplate his mistake, his guilt. All of his childhood fairytales say witches can’t be trusted, but when the other option is being alone, well it’s really no choice at all. 

He thinks he learned his lesson, he just can’t follow it yet. He doesn’t know that the lessons are just beginning.

* * *

He’s fifteen years old, once more on the wrong side of a door, and he can’t help but think he was probably always going to end up here. That it’s fitting his journey begins and ends with a door, and maybe the biggest lie was the one he told to himself.

In the end, as much as he hates to admit it, it hadn’t been about saving Kairi. It hadn’t even really been about being stronger than Sora. It had been about proving himself, about showing them they  _ needed  _ him. That even with Sora’s growing strength and Kairi’s budding wisdom they couldn’t just sail off together and leave him behind. Trapped, in that small island paradise.

It was about his fear.

But now, for the first time in what he realizes is a long time, he's not afraid anymore. There's more between them than ever before—too many mistakes, a door, Darkness—but Riku has more faith in his friends now too. He looks into Sora's eyes as the door closes and, with a small smile, he says, "Take care of her."

With Sora safely on the other side of the door—and he’s so grateful that at least he got that right— Riku turns to face the darkness. Yellow eyes glow everywhere, at once too high and too low. Riku himself is entirely familiar with what these eyes mean: Heartless, lying in wait. He knows, though he hasn’t yet tried, that the Heartless won’t listen to him anymore. Part of him is glad, as if a heavy vice has been released from his heart. Part of him appreciates the irony of freeing his heart, only to risk losing it again.

“Are ya ready, Riku?”

He looks down at the king, noting that the sight of a Keyblade doesn’t fill him with envy. Smirking, he summons his sword and prepares to fight. 

He’s fifteen years old, and he understands it now; the door may have closed, but this isn’t the end. 

It’s a new beginning. 

“I’m ready.”


End file.
